Evolving to Thrive - The Pathway of Ascension with Mitch Russo

0:01Light that spark fire nation JLD here and welcome to entrepreneurs on fire brought to you by high level, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. Today, we'll be breaking down Evolving to Thrive, the pathway of ascension. To drop these value bombs, I brought Mitch Russo into EO Fire Studios. Mitch built two eight-figure companies, partnered with Tony Robbins, wrote four best-selling books, runs a SaaS business, coaches like Yoda, and now channel spiritual truth without the robes. And today, our nation will talk about the Tony Robbins and Chet Holmes partnership, the four books, the two companies to eight figures, Sacred Profits, and oh, so much more.

0:37And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Mitch and our sponsors. Are you ready for the ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies? Build funnels, automate follow-ups, manage clients, and even white-label your own software. Say hello to our featured partner, High Level, and visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial today. Mitch, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Sure. Well, John, it's great to see you and great to be with you. And I will share that amazing tip that you're asking me for, but it's taken me a long time to really understand it.

1:24And for me, it's been very valuable. And that is you have to step back and you have to look inward before you could look outward and upward. That's my tip. Fire Nation, wise words from an incredibly wise man. As we talk about evolving to thrive, the pathway of ascension. Now, you built, Mitch, an eight-figure business with Tony Robbins and Chet Holmes. Legends, legends in this space. Share the behind-the-scenes lessons and leadership takeaways from that part of your life, from that journey. Yeah, there's so many, John. It's almost hard to know where to start. Let me start at the beginning. In the beginning, I offered to help.

2:07That's all I did. I offered Chet a hand at dealing with some issues inside his company. And over the course of maybe six months of us just working on his little company, a couple of million dollars in coaching business, which was wonderful, substantial as it was. that's when finally he invited me to be the president and run the company, of which I agreed. Next came the introduction to Tony Robbins. And that for us, that changed everything. So what we did is we had Thursday nights with Tony. Every Thursday night for months, we would meet with Tony. And it was Tony, he was meeting us around 10 p.m.

2:52his time. And, And, you know, for us on the East Coast, that was like one in the morning or whatever. But so we were up late and loved the conversations. And we were just trying to work it out. How do we do this? And then finally, we agreed, we're going to figure it out. So let's move forward. And we immediately went to work selling and filling a 500-person stadium to run the Business Mastery event. And that's when everything started. I mean, Fire Nation, when you're at a certain place in business and in life, you need to do whatever it takes to make it happen. If that means you're working at 2 a.m.

3:31every single night, you got to be in that willingness of the grind it out stage to grind it out and to make it happen. I mean, when I remember when I launched this podcast back in 2012, there was nothing that could get in my way. I was giving up everything in my life for a short period of time to get this thing off the ground and make it happen. Now, Mitch, you wrote four books and they shaped your thinking as well as the evolution of your message. Tell us how. You know what it comes down to, and it's going to sound funny, but I was working with clients for quite a number of years after Tony, Chet, and I ended that formal relationship.

4:11Of course, Chet had passed away, but Tony and I stayed friends. And I just started taking notes. I started writing things down. Now, I called Jay Abraham and I said to Jay, hey, Jay, what do I do? Chet just died. I kind of resigned from the organization because, honestly, I think it just closed a chapter in my life. What do I do next? And what Jay Abraham said to me was, Mitch, whatever you do, you must teach others what you know. And I said, OK, Jay, but how do I do that? And this was, by the way, this was back in 2012. And he said, Mitch, I don't know how, but you got to. You just can't keep what's inside of you and not share it with others.

4:56And that's what started me on writing. And I didn't stop. I wrote The Invisible Organization based on my experience scaling a completely virtual company to over 300 people as the president and CEO. Then I went on to write Power Tribes, which is the book on certification. certification has brought me so much, so many benefits and so many gifts over the years. I decided that I was going to share it with the world. And so Power Tribes is a story of how certification can explode your business. And then as time went on, as I kept doing more and more certification programs for clients, I again was a coach.

5:33And so I had perfected a coaching system that I believed would almost guarantee great results for coaches. And so I wrote the book Coach Elevation, which encapsulates all of the very important things that I learned while not only coaching, but building a SaaS company around coaches. So I built Clientfolio, that's.io, to help coaches scale their business. And I encapsulated the secrets that I learned and the things that I put in that book as well about how to scale a coaching business. And then finally, and this is going to be a little bit of a departure for me, I wrote a book called Sacred Prophets.

6:16Now, Sacred Prophets came after I had a very, very deep personal spiritual experience where I realized maybe for the first time in all of my life that I was far more than what I appeared to be. And at that moment in time, I then saw the world completely differently. I had dropped what most people would consider the traditional ego mind and went on to merge with the divine as a free being. And from that place, I realized I could even do more. I could help more people. I could help corporations incorporate mindfulness, meditation, and frequency energy directly into their company. And that's why I wrote Sacred good profits.

6:59So that's my current, and I have a new book coming out. Depends on when this drops, but it should be available in a few weeks. And that's basically all about licensing. It's called Licensing for Leverage. So that's my repertoire so far. Well, that's quite the repertoire and Fire Nation. If you think we're done with Mitch, we haven't even gotten started and we have so much more coming up when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Okay. Let's talk about a platform that's completely changing how entrepreneurs are running their business, and they are also our featured partner, HighLevel. If you're an entrepreneur, coach, agency, or a course creator looking to grow faster and smarter, HighLevel is the all-in-one platform that replaces your entire tech stack.

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8:20On top of it all, their support team is second to none and has your back every step of the way. Seriously, every question that pops up, they will have your answer waiting. And if you visit my special partnership link, you'll get a free trial. So visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial and see why thousands of businesses are switching. That's highlevelfire.com, where marketing, sales, and automation finally come together. High level, join the revolution. Now, Mitch, you alluded to this before the break, but I want to dive in deeper about the spiritual awakening that you had that changed everything.

8:55Share that moment and what success means to you now. I must say that this is, it was completely unexpected. It was a spontaneous awakening. I had some prior, months prior, I had gone to several ayahuasca ceremonies with friends and it was, frankly, it was a tough road for me. Ayahuasca is a brutal experience. For me, it was anyway. And I came out feeling lighter, feeling like I had shed cellular trauma. But other than that, I just felt a little bit better, which was great. It was then months later that I'm in a meditation group, really having what we'd call spiritual tea, effectively. And it was in that moment that all of a sudden and instantly I merged with the divine.

9:48And from that moment on, something happened, John. It was almost terrifying and wonderful at the same time. And the reason it was terrifying was because I realized that nothing in my life could stay the same. Everything now had to change. So if you have this idea of what is this thing called an awakening, it's such a massive shift and such a beautiful feeling of totally immersed in the feeling of, You say the word love, but it's far beyond that. It's like I said before, it's emerging really with the power of love, with the divine itself. And at that point, I started looking at everything I was doing.

10:29And the first week, John, I sat on the beach and stared at the ocean. I didn't know what to do. So I started wondering, what do I do? Do I keep doing what I did before? Do I do different things, new things? and that's when I decided that I was going to energize everything I did with this power that I now have which is basically the power of me and it's my pure spirit my ability to feel and connect with people on a much deeper level than I ever did before and what that's done is it's it's affected everything I do my coaching is far more impactful and powerful than it's ever been before. The books I'm writing now, John, I'm writing fiction.

11:13I actually am embodying what these experiences were in parables and stories like The Alchemist that frankly have just poured out of me. And I'd like to tell your audience about one of those books that's coming up soon, if that's okay, when you're ready. Yeah. Well, what I want to move to next before we do that is specifically how you're using story to awaken, to inspire, to reach hearts where strategies just can't. Tell us more about that. Sure. So what ends up happening is that strategies, we're so thick in strategies right now. There's so many strategies and tactics floating around. And honestly, they're free.

11:56You can go to ChatGPT, YouTube, Facebook, you get all the strategies and tactics you want, but none of them do anything for you unless you're in a place where you could receive them. And whether they are designed to fit into your life and the structure of who you are. So for me, and this is really the progression was when I had this moment where everything changed, I started to journal and I kept journaling and journaling and journaling. I mean, I journaled for months and months and I said, well, you know what? I probably should turn this into another book. I already had one book that sort of bordered on discussing some of this, and that was the Sacred Prophets book I mentioned.

12:40But this was different because this is really what happened. When you step into the void, and to me the void is a place between. It's a place where you're leaving something behind and you're moving to something different and new. But for most of us, we don't know what that is. That's to me why it's called the void. And I was in the void. I didn't know what was next. But what I discovered that I couldn't find out what was next until I stepped into it. Until I took that first step, until I tried steps, I couldn't see what it was. And what I discovered is that all of my journal writing really was a story.

13:21It was a parable. And I figured that if I can create a story that people could step into and feel what it felt like, then the bottom line would be maybe I could help others do the same. And that's why I wrote my next book called Sacred Crossroads. That book is under evaluation right now by Hay House. I'm hoping they say yes to a publishing deal. And I've created a website around my fiction stories now. And again, people can download the wisdom from that book right now, even before the book is published. So, Mish, I want to shift a little bit to a question about scaling companies because you scaled two companies to eight figures.

14:09I mean, few people ever do that one time. You did it twice. But even with that success, what would you do differently if you were to do it all over again? But then also share with us, what would you do the same? What I would do the same, John, is the thing you mentioned when we first started talking. and you talked about how hard you worked when you started your podcast. And John, like you, I worked so hard when I first built both of my companies. And when I say so hard, and I'm sure you can identify with this, I worked 16 hours a week. So, I mean, we do whatever it takes. And that means nothing else matters.

14:51And I mean, nothing else matters. And that's what I did to build Time Slips Corporation. And then when I joined Chet and Tony, I did it again. But I did it this time with a feeling of confidence. I knew now what to do. When I did it for Time Slips Corporation, I didn't have a clue. I was just basically brute forcing it and using common sense. And I also had a good background from my family. We had family businesses all throughout my growing up years, which were retail stores. So I knew a lot about marketing and sales from my dad. I knew a lot about inventory and management, but we didn't have, in a software company, at first, you didn't have inventory.

15:32Later, we built an entire manufacturing organization because back then, software was disks and books. So we had to literally create a factory in order to sell software. So all of that came into play. So that's what I would do the same. What I would do differently, and again, I'm reflecting now at this age, because this is, for me, this was well over 35 years ago. At this age, I would be sure to do two things I didn't do back then. Number one is I would take care of my relationships. And number two is I would take care of my body because I didn't do either when I built my first company. When I built Time Slips Corporation, I severed most of my relationships and I ate whatever was convenient and fast so I and get back to work.

16:22And those were mistakes because I lost ground in both of those areas in doing so. The second time I did it, I was a little bit smarter about it. So I didn't do those two things that put me behind the eight ball. But the second time I did it, what I realized is I could have involved my partner more. So at the time I was married and I could have involved her more. And instead, I tried to keep her away because I felt like, I just felt like the environment wouldn't be healthy for us. But I've been rethinking that ever since that happened. So now I would again. Mitch, I want to give you the microphone as we come to a close here and just take it, step up on the virtual stage that we have here and share whatever is in your heart.

17:16What do you want to talk about as we say goodbye to Fire Nation today? The last time we spoke, you said it was 2016. It's a long time, just nine years ago. And I think we've both come a long way. I've learned a lot. And for me, it's not just the work experience or even the relationship experience. It is the understanding that I truly am an individual of value. And when I had imposter syndrome almost all of my life growing up and during the entire time I was building TimeSlips Corporation. And the reason I did is because I told myself that I had no skills, no background, no education. So therefore, I had to kind of wing it.

18:04Well, there was an enormous amount of value in winging it. And later I realized that MBAs who I brought on into the organization didn't even understand everything we used to do and what we went through to get there. So for me, the experience factor was incredibly powerful. As far as what I believe is important now to anybody listening to this show, it's spend the time and look inside. I know it sounds trite because a lot of people say it, but it's really true, has been for me. I meditate every day and I love to separate myself from my world. And I love to go into the void and connect to what my future looks like there, because that's really where you create everything.

18:53And if you're not creating in the void, if you're not in that place where you could see your future and pull it towards you, bring it to you, then it's going to be harder to accomplish. So that would be, that would be my tip. That would be the goal I would set for everybody is to do that. Mitch, if Fire Nation's really connecting with your words today, with what you have going on, how can they connect with you? What is your call to action for our listeners today? Certainly my website, MitchRusso.com, or as you said earlier, MitchRusso360, is the place where you'll find my business stuff. But if you want to see my personal stuff, go to MitchelARusso.com.

19:35That's two L's, MitchellARusso.com. And that's where you can see the projects that I'm working on that are heart-centered. Those are my writing works. Those are my fiction and storytelling works. And hey, download the wisdom tips. They're, I think, amazing. And I loved writing them. And I hope you'll find them valuable. And look forward to the book coming out soon. Fire Nation, you're the average. Of the five people you spend the most time with, you've been hanging out with MR and JLD today, so keep up that heat. And for links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com. Type Mitch in the search bar, and the show notes page will pop right up, as well as that 2016 interview, which I'm sure was a classic.

20:21Mitch, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you, brother, and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thank you, John. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Mitch for sponsoring today's episode. And Fire Nation, what can 4 ,000 of the world's most successful entrepreneurs teach you? How about how to achieve financial freedom and fulfillment? My first traditionally published book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, is a revolutionary 17-step roadmap that will lead you to the lifestyle that you've been dreaming about.

20:51This book took me 10 years of accumulating the genius of the world's top entrepreneurs. and you can get it all in one place when you visit UncommonSuccessBook.com. I'll catch you there or on the flip side. Are you ready for the ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies? Build funnels, automate follow-ups, manage clients, and even white-label your own software. Say hello to our featured partner, High Level, and visit HighLevelFire.com to start your free trial today. Thank you.